


Wonderland

by welcomefellowmisfits



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe- No Supernatural, F/F, Fluff, LaFerry - Freeform, Love Story, Resident Assistant AU, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-18
Updated: 2015-09-14
Packaged: 2018-04-05 01:38:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4160736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/welcomefellowmisfits/pseuds/welcomefellowmisfits
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Resident Assistant AU</p><p>Laura is a sophomore and first year RA. She's excited for the opportunity to be there for the residents of Silas University. Most people don't realize that being an RA brings new friendships, new relationships, and a bunch of crazy stories. Who knows how well Laura will handle this upcoming year but it'll sure be fun to watch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Training

“Welcome, everyone! I am so very happy that you are all here and beginning your journey to be the best Resident Assistants you can be. You were all picked for a specific purpose: you are all here because we feel you are the best of the best student leaders on campus and we believe you will be able to fulfill the ResLife promise.”

Laura scans the room of about 40 college kids who are all standing in a circle. She’s trying her best to stay focused on the woman speaking to them in the middle of the circle but standing still for long periods of time was something she was never good at all. She looks across the circle from her and sees her old RA Perry whispering to her friend Lafontaine who is standing right next to them. Perry seems keen on listening to the woman in the circle but Lafontaine seems adamant on getting their attention for something. Laura keeps scanning the room and on the far right side of the room she sees Danny, her old Lit TA. Danny is making some weird gestures with her hands which confuses Laura the longer she stares. Laura turns her head to the direction in which Danny seems to be looking at and her eyes land on Kirsch. He also seems to be doing weird gestures with his hands. Laura rolls her eyes and figures they must be silently arguing about something from across the room. The woman is still talking and Laura is just about to start listening again when a set of brown eyes catches her attention. She looks back at them and realizes she doesn’t recognize the person whose eyes they belong to. The girl is dressed in all black and wearing pants instead of athletic wear like the professional staff suggested. She has curly black hair and Laura’s breath gets caught in her throat because she can’t believe how beautiful this girl. The girls mouth begin to turn upwards into a smirk and Laura realizes she was just staring at this stranger far longer than what it considered to be normal. So before Laura can embarrass herself any further she turns her attention back to the woman speaking. 

“- so without wasting anymore time we will now read off your partner’s names. Remember this is your partner for the remainder of training. You will participate in team builders together, lead a team builder, and whatever other partner situations you may encounter this week. Perry if you will please.”

The woman’s comment towards her snaps Perry out of the conversation she was having with Lafontaine. “Of course, Kristen. No problem.” Perry moves to stand in the middle of the circle and gestures for Lafontaine to come with her. From what Laura can see Lafontaine is holding a box of different colored bandanas. “When I call your names you’ll grab a bandana from Lafontaine here and wait outside for further instructions.”

Perry begins to call out the names and Laura can’t help the excitement she feels bubbling up inside her. She doesn’t know too many people here at training. Her only real friend would be Perry but she is also her old RA and also attached to Lafontaine. This is Laura’s chance at making a first real RA friend at training. 

“Danny Lawrence and Wilson Kirsch.” Laura has to cover her mouth with her hand to stop herself from laughing out loud because whoever picked partners clearly didn’t think how devastating that pair would be. Laura looks to Danny who has her mouth open and fist clenched to her sides. Laura can tell she’ trying her best not to blow up.

“You can’t be serious, Perry. I can’t work with this dudebro.” Danny says when she finally walks up to Perry and Lafontaine. 

Kirsch walks up behind her and gives her a playful slap on the back. “Come-on, Summer Psycho. It’ll be like the good old times. Zeta and Summer joining forces.”

Danny gives him a hard glare and when she realizes there isn’t going to be any way out of this she snatches the yellow bandana from Lafontaine’s hand and begins to walk out of the room. Kirsch grabs his bandana from Lafontaine as well and catches up to Danny. Before they leave the room Laura can hear Danny yell at Kirsch. 

“- and if you ever touch me again I’ll break your hand, got it, Wilson?”

With Danny and Kirsch paired together and Perry and Lafontaine obviously paired together Laura begins to wonder who she’ll be paired with. All the people she already knows is gone so whoever it is will definitely be someone she doesn’t really know. Before Laura has the chance to rescan the room for possible partners she hears Perry call her name.

“Laura Hollis and Carmilla Karnstein.” Laura never heard that name before on campus and wonders who it could be. She begins to walk towards Perry and Lafontaine to grab her bandana and notices the girl who she was just caught staring at a few moments ago is walking towards them as well. 

(of course she would be her partner.)

Laura turns to smile at Carmilla and introduce herself properly but before she has a chance Carmilla snatches a bandana from Lafontaines hand and begins to walk out of the room. Laura turns her head to Perry and Lafontaine who just shrug at her before Perry reads off another set of names and they turn their attention away from Laura. Laura grabs her bandana and then starts walking out of the room in search for her partner. 

(this should be a ton of fun.)

//

Laura goes outside to the field behind the cabin and finds Carmilla standing under a tree just picking at her fingernails. All the other pairs are standing in the field talking to each other and Laura can feel a high buzz in the air. 

“Hey.” Laura says to Carmilla when she finally reaches her. Carmilla already has her bandana tied against her arm which reminds Laura that she should probably put hers on.

“Hey.” Carmilla responds disinterested while she still picks at her fingernails and doesn’t look up at Laura. 

Laura starts to fold her bandana and then ties it on her head careful not to mess up her ponytail. “I’m Laura.” She extends her hand out to Carmilla. Carmilla finally looks at Laura and then down at her hand. “Carmilla.” She responds as she takes the other girl's hand and shakes it quickly. The darker haired girl leans against the tree and folds her arms against her chest. An awkward silence falls between them and Laura thinks she’s never met an RA as off putting as this girl. 

“So is this your first year as an RA?”

“Yup.”

“That’s cool. It’s my first year too.”

“Awesome.”

“So what building are you in? I’m in Dowden Hall with the freshman.”

Carmilla gives a short laugh. “Of course you are.”

Laura rolls her eyes at Carmilla’s short answers and she doesn’t miss the sarcastic tone attached to them. She’s about to ask Carmilla what the heck is up with her but one of the resident directors shouts for everyone to move to the center of the field. 

//

“Ok guys our first team builder will be lead by me and Lafontaine. We’ll going to be playing Birdie on a Perch. For those of you who don’t know how to play the rules are simple. You’ll all be walking around, trying your best to stay away from your partner, and when Lafontaine or I yell ‘birdie on a perch’ you must run towards your partner and one of you must be holding the other in some way. Your feet can’t touch the ground. The last team standing wins. Got it?”

The group of students nod their head and yell a couple of yeah’s in Perry’s direction.

“I love this game. Do you want to hold me or do you want me to hold you?” Laura says to Carmilla with a big smile. 

“I never mind having a pretty girl in my arms. Too bad I hate these type of games.”

Before Laura has a chance to respond Perry shouts for them to mingle and with everyone beginning to walk around she becomes separated from her partner. Laura tries her best to look out for Carmilla so she knows in which direction to run.

“Birdie on a perch!”

Everyone beings shouting their partners names and start to jump into each others arms. Laura is trying her best to maneuver past all the bodies. She finally finds Carmilla who is just standing there seemingly undriven by the game. 

“Come-on jump. I can hold you.” Laura tells Carmilla who just stares at her and shakes her head. 

“No way. Sorry, buttercup.”

Laura doesn’t have a chance to persuade Carmilla to play the game because everyone around them already paired up with their partners and it was just the two of them left standing there. 

“Laura, Carmilla, you’re out.”

Carmilla happily walks away to sit on the grass near Lafontaine and Perry who are still leading the game. Laura follows her and sits down as well. 

“What the heck? Why didn’t you want to play?”

“Sorry, buttercup. I just don’t see a point participating in childish games when we’re suppose to be in college.”

“It’s fun and used so we can become comfortable with each other.” Laura argues.

Carmilla smirks at Laura. “I’m already comfortable with the idea of pretty girls touching me. Just not with such a big crowd.” 

Laura blushes and doesn’t know how to respond to carmilla’s comment. First she smirks at her when she catches her staring. Then she doesn’t want to talk to her. She doesn’t want to participate in the team builder either but now she’s blatantly flirting. She’s known carmilla for a hot minute and is already experiencing some serious whiplash. Laura decides to ignore her comment and settles her attention back on the game just in time to catch Danny and Kirsch argue with one another of who was suppose to hold who up. Lafontaine and Perry call them out and they both stomp away each blaming the other on why they lost. 

//

The next few days are filled with arguments between Carmilla and Laura. Laura’s first impression of Carmilla may have been how beautiful she was but as the days dragged on that impression quickly changed. Partners were paired together as roommates which meant Laura has to suffer through Carmilla eating all her snacks, bringing back girls and laying on her bed because _it isn’t good manners to have company move to the top bunk, cupcake_ , and then having Laura practically drag Carmilla out of bed every morning because Laura is a good person and doesn’t want to see her training partner get in trouble despite her being a raging bad person.

All the RAs just got done eating lunch at the Mess Hall and were given a small break before diving back into another team builder and the rest of their schedule. Laura finds Carmilla sitting under a tree looking out onto the sea of kids. 

“Hey. So it’s our time to lead a team builder next.”

“I know.”

“Ok. Well what do you want to do?

Carmilla sighs. She plucks a few pieces of grass from the roots and avoids looking at Laura. “I dont care.”

“C’mon. It’s not really a team effort if I just decide for us.”

“Well I relinquish my half of the power. Decisions all yours, sweetheart.”

Laura rolls her eyes for what is probably the millionth time this week. “Seriously? Can you please just work with me here? I dont understand why you’re even here when you clearly just hate people.”

Carmilla finally looks up and glares at Laura. “Glad to know you have me all figured out, buttercup. You’re going to be one heck of an RA.”

“At least I won’t scare my residents away.” Laura argues back.

“Well at least I won’t annoy the fuck out of my residents.” Carmilla says harshly. Laura’s mouth drops slightly but she immediately shuts it and glares back at Carmilla. She can feel a lump start to form in her throat. Carmilla sees the hurt in the other girl's eyes and immediately wants to take back what she said. But she doesn’t. 

“Whatever.” Laura says quickly as gets up and walks away.

Carmilla lets out a frustrated grunt. She leans back against the tree and folds her arms in front of her chest. She never feels bad when she says something harsh to another person. Just because it’s mean doesn’t make it untrue she always says to herself. But there was something she saw in Laura’s eyes that made her actually feel bad. Carmilla sighs and gets up to catch up to Laura who she can see still walking. 

“Laura, wait up.” It’s the first time all week Carmilla has said her actual name. Laura stops and turns around to face the other girl. 

“Look Carmilla I really don’t want to fight with you right now.”

Carmilla puts her hands up in mock surrender. “No fighting. I swear, sweetheart. I just wanted to say sorry. I didn’t mean to lash out on you like that.”

Laura studies Carmilla’s face. She finds nothing but sincerity, surprisingly. Laura gives her a small smile. “Alright. I’ll forgive you” Carmilla is just about to let out a sigh of relief until Laura finishes her sentence. “-only if you actually help me lead the team builder.”

Carmilla rolls her eyes. “Fine. Whatever. We can do that stupid anatomy shuffle game.” Laura’s eyes grow big and she lunges forward to squeeze Carmilla into a hug. Carmilla freezes but Laura doesn’t seem to notice or care. 

“Oh my god that’s perfect.” Laura releases herself from Carmilla and grabs her hand to lead her towards the rest of the group. 

“This is gonna be great” she says as she’s smiling. 

Carmilla does her best to stop the smile she can feel growing on her face.

//

Laura is walking out of the cabin when she runs into Lafontaine. They’re trying their best to hold a ton graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows. 

“Hey L. A group of us are going to make some s’mores, wanna come?”

Laura looks behind lafontaine and can see a group standing around a fire while some top 40 song plays in the background. Before she looks back at Lafontaine her eyes fall on a shadow sitting on a bench reading a book. 

“I’ll be there in a few, Laf.” Laura starts to walk away from lafontaine and in the direction of the person sitting on the bench. Laura had a pretty good feeling who the person reading on the bench was but now that she was actually standing in front of them she knew it was Carmilla. 

“Hey.”  
Carmilla looks up front her book and actually smiles up at Laura. Not a smirk or glare but an actual smile. “Hey.”

“Mind if i sit?”

Carmilla pats the spot next to her. “All yours.”

“I just wanted to say thank you, for today I mean. Human anatomy was a lot of fun to lead.”

Carmilla laughs quietly and smiles down at her boots. “I guess it was pretty fun to make those idiots do ridiculous stuff.”

“Like when you said nose to butt. I couldn’t stop laughing when Danny straight up refused to do that one with Kirsch.”

Carmilla laughs more loudly this time and Laura can’t help but think how beautiful it is. “Pissing off Xena and puppy boy was probably the highlight of my day.”

Laura’s smiling at Carmilla and she can’t help herself so she smiles back. They stay smiling at each other for a few moments before Laura realizes it’s happening and decides she needs to start talking again. 

“So they’re having a fire over there. There’s gonna be some s’mores and music. Wanna come?”

Carmilla looks behind her towards the group of kids standing around the fire. She can see Perry and Lafontaine cuddled up against one another on a log staring at the fire. Danny and Kirsch seem to actually have stopped fighting about something and are cooking s’mores together. And everyone else is dancing around to some horrible top 40 song.

“No thanks, cupcake. I’m good here.”

Laura frowns slightly at Carmilla's response. She doesn't push her though in fear of starting another argument when they actually seem to be on good terms right now.

“Ok. I’ll, um, see you around I guess.” Laura gets up from the bench and starts walking towards her friends.

“Bye, cupcake.”

Laura is about to say goodbye again but trips over a stick in the dark. She regains her balance and embarrassingly looks back at Carmilla who just so happened to have still been staring at her. She lets out an awkward laugh and waves bye to Carmilla before jogging up towards her friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Leave a comment if you like the story so far or not. 
> 
> I'm more than ok to discuss this fanfic with anyone! :) It'll be a good one so stick around for the ride. 
> 
> If you want you can follow me on tumblr at: welcomefellowmisfits.tumblr.com


	2. Move in Day

“Hey L, over here.” Laura’s eyes move to the direction of the voice calling her. Perry and Lafontaine are sitting at a table by the windows waving at her to come over. Laura quickly grabs a fork for her food and moves toward the table. Lafontaine pushes the chair next to them so Laura can slide in easier.

“Thanks, Laf. So are you guys ready for the day?”

“Oh yeah. Move in day is the best.” Laura or Perry doesn’t miss the sarcasm dripping from Lafontaine’s mouth. Perry rolls her eyes while Laura gives a short laugh.

“I expect more from you Lafontaine seeing as you are a second year RA.” Perry gives Lafontaine a look she imagines a mother would give to their child as she scolds them.

“Well as long as pro-staff isn’t around I don’t see why we can’t warn Laura here ahead of time about move in.”

Lafontaine turns their head to look at Laura. “Look L, today is gonna suck. It’s gonna be long and filled with a lot of hard work.” Perry looks like she is about to start fuming but before she has a chance to interrupt Lafontaine is able to finish their sentence. “But when it’s all over you’re going to feel really accomplished. And it’s the best chance to make first impressions with your residents. So yeah it sucks but it’s also kinda worth it.”

Laura and Lafontaine both turn to Perry who is sitting there trying and failing to hide the smile on her face. She’s beaming proudly at Lafontaine. “I guess that is a good way to put it.” Laura’s smiling and looking back and forth between the two others at her table. Lafontaine shoots Perry a playful wink before going back to eating their breakfast. Perry goes back to reading the schedule of the day for what Laura assumes to be the hundredth time today.

“Hey, beautiful people. What’s happening?”

Laura looks up and is met with Kirsch standing over her. He’s holding a plate of food filled with everything served at the dining hall right now Laura assumes while biting into an apple.

“Hi, Kirsch. Wanna sit?”

“Heck yeah Little-L. Pumped for today?” Laura looks over to Lafontaine who’s smirking back at her and she thinks of the conversation they just had a few short moments ago. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“Is that the schedule?” Kirsch is straining his neck to look at the paper Perry has been studying for basically the entire time they’ve been at breakfast.

“Why did you lose yours already?” Lafontaine says jokingly to him.  
Kirsch scratches the back of his neck. “Uh, maybe.”

Lafontaine and Laura laugh while Perry rolls her eyes. She scans the paper quickly and finds his name along with his assigned duty for the day. “Well, it says here you are on cart return for the whole day with Danny.”

“He’s what with Danny?” The tall red head walks up to their table and pulls up a seat next to Laura.

“Perry was just telling Kirsch that he and you have cart return duty together.” Laura tells Danny as she scoots over to make room for the taller girl.

Danny rolls her eyes so hard Laura’s afraid they might just pop out. “I can’t believe I’m stuck with this dumb frat boy all day today. This has to be some sick joke.”

“Dude. Silas doesn’t even have Greek life. You know what the Zeta’s are.” Danny rolls her eyes again and Laura thinks she’s definitely going to have to talk to Danny about the dangers of straining one's eyes so often. “Also it’s smart of reslife to put us together. We’re like the strongest ones on staff.”

Perry looks up from the schedule and puts it down. Finally done memorizing the entire thing Laura thinks to herself. “He is right. It does seem most logical putting you two together for this job.”

“Yeah, Perry’s right. You’re gonna be able to grab and return the carts back to the lot far quicker than any other team” Lafontaine chimes in.

“Well that’s good to hear seeing as I'm stuck in the lot all day moving people into their rooms.”

“Dude that’s cool. Carmilla is in the lot too.”

Everyone at the table gives Kirsch a confused face. “What? We’re friends.”

“Sure you are beefcake. She’s probably just on the rotation of girls you can’t stop hitting on.”

“Shut it, Summer Psycho. We totally are friends.”

Everyone at the table looks to each other all silently communicating whether or not to believe Kirsch. Before he has a chance to defend himself Perry looks at her watch and realizes they have 5 minutes to be at their designated stations. “Well this has been a great start to the morning. Anyway we should all get going. Move in officially begins in 5 minutes.”

//

Laura makes her way over to the parking lot where students are going to park and they’re going to help them unload their belonging and bring them up to their dorm rooms. She scans the lot full of RA’s sitting around waiting for the first few cars to start coming. Her eyes fall on the raven haired girl sitting on the edge of the curb with black sunglasses on. She debates for a few moments on whether or not she should go over. Eventually she decides to just walk over and sit down next to her.

“Hey.”

Carmilla looks over and offers her a small smile. “Hey.”

“Ready for today?”

Carmilla begins to roll up the sleeves of her shirt a little bit. “As ready as I’ll ever be, cupcake.”

“It could be worse. We could be on cart return.”

Carmilla gives a slightly horrified look. “That would be torturous. Kirsch was telling me before I got here that he got stuck doing that with Xena.”

Laura laughs and the other girl gives her confused look. “Sorry. I was just at breakfast with Kirsch and a few others. He mentioned you guys were friends but no one really believed him. But I guess we were wrong.”

Carmilla laughs slightly at Laura’s comment. “The beefcake and I are friends, unfortunately. I’ve known him all my life basically.”

Laura smiles at Carmilla. “That’s really cool. I’ve never had a friend that long.”

Carmilla shrugs her shoulders and then leans back on her hands trying to soak up more of the sun coming out. “It’s whatever.”

Laura looks at Carmilla and can’t help thinking how pretty she looks right now. She’s wearing the same maroon shirt as every other RA and some black pants. The sun is hitting Carmilla in the most perfect way that allows Laura to really notice how well structured her jawline and cheekbones are. They sit in silence for a few moments. Carmilla relaxing with the sun and Laura just staring at her. They hasn’t spoken but Carmilla can feel that brunette has been staring at her for a while. “Can I help you with something, sweetheart?”

Laura quickly turns away from Carmilla embarrassed at being caught staring at her and blushes

“Uh, sorry, I was um, just thinking this is the longest we’ve gone without arguing with each other.”

Carmilla moves so she’s sitting more upright and brushes the dirt off her hands. “Sorry about that, buttercup. I didn’t really enjoy training too much. Since I’m a transfer Kirsch was the only one I knew.”

“You transferred? From where?”

“Sheridan University.”

“How come you transferred here?”

Carmilla sighs and stares down at her boots. “That’s a story for another time, sweetheart.”

Laura is about to ask another question seeing as how friendly Carmilla is being right now but is interrupted by the sounds of honking cars driving by. Carmilla lifts her sunglasses so they are now resting on top of her head.

“Guess the little monsters are here.”

Laura laughs and rolls her eyes at Carmilla. ”Yeah, the residents are here. C’mon lets go help the others.”

Laura stands up and reaches her hand out to help Carmilla stand up. She looks at the other girl's hand for a few seconds before accepting it and pulling herself up.

“Thanks, cutie” Carmilla says to her before walking over in the direction of a blue cart. Laura stands in the same place for a few seconds before Carmilla turns back to face her.

“Are you coming or not?”

Laura looks embarrassed not realizing that she was more busy staring at Carmilla again instead of actually moving her legs to walk with her. “Oh, uh yeah, of course” She says before jogging up to Carmilla and helping her unload the first car.

//

It’s nearing the end of the day and there are only a few more cars left to help move-in. The day has surprisingly been a good one for Laura. Not once had she and Carmilla argued with each other and instead just engaged in fun-bickering over TV shows and music. Carmilla learned how much of a Doctor Who fanatic Laura was and she learned how much the darker haired girl loved horror movie classics. What was unsurprising was how little work Carmilla wanted to do so it was mostly just a lot of Laura unloading everything while Carmilla just pushed the cart. Despite how long the day was and how tired Laura was she actually found herself having a fun time with Carmilla.

“So you never did tell me what res hall you were placed in.” Carmilla looks up at Laura and the other girl can’t help but think of how cute she looks drinking from a juice box. Once Carmilla finishes her drink she crushes it and throws it into the trash. “Chandler Village.”

“Oh! Lafontaine and Danny are placed there too.”

Carmilla twirls her finger in the air and sarcastically says “Yippy.”

Laura gives a playful shove to the other girl's shoulder which makes Carmilla laugh.

“What floor are you on here at the dirty d, cupcake?”

“Second. Kirsch is actually my floor partner.”

“Well it seems Kirsch won’t be the only reason for my visits to the second floor.” Carmilla smirks at Laura and she can’t help the blush forming on her cheeks.

“Anyway I’m gonna go to the bathroom real quick, cutie. Don’t miss me too much.”

“You wish.” Laura throws a chip in Carmilla direction. She laughs and is able to catch the chip which she just throws into her mouth to eat.

Laura finishes her drink and chip bag and decides to wait outside for Carmilla.

“Um, excuse me, can you help me?”

Laura turns around to face the owner of the voice. “Yeah, what’s up?”

“I already checked in but I don’t know where my stuff went.”

“Oh they probably brought your stuff to your room already. Where do you live?”

“1233.”

Laura beams at the sound of the number. “Awesome! I’m one of the RAs on the second floor and you’re actually my resident.”

The boy smiles and nods his head. “C’mon I’ll bring you to your room” Laura says while directing the boy towards the staircase.

“What’s your name?” Laura ask as they walk up the stairs.

“William Karnstein. But you can just call me Will.”

“Karnstein? Do you know Carmilla Karnstein?”

Will laughs. “Yeah, she’s actually my sister.”

Laura looks shocked but she can’t stop smiling. “I’m an RA with your sister. She actually lives in the res hall behind this one.”

“That’s cool. Do you know where she is? I was hoping I would run into her.”

“I was actually just with her but she went to the bathroom.”

“Oh ok. I’ll just text her later.”

Laura smiles at Will. When they finally arrive at Wills dorm room they find a few RAs already in the process of unloading everything into the room.

“Alright. You’re probably one of the last check ins so I’m going to check out with my boss. I’ll definitely see you around though, Will.”

“Ok cool. Thanks for showing me to my room.”

Laura smiles and gives Will a wave goodbye. When she making it back to the first floor she literally runs into Carmilla.

Carmilla has her hands holding onto to Laura’s arms. “Jeez, creampuff. Watch where you’re going.”

“Sorry about that.” Carmilla lets go of Laura and she can’t help but miss the feeling of Carmilla holding her. She shakes away the feelings quickly wanting to tell the other girl on who she just met.

“Guess who I just met?”

“The 12th doctor?”

“No. Your brother. You never told me you had a brother who was coming here.”

Carmilla just shrugs her shoulders. “Never came up, cutie.”

Laura rolls her eyes. They have literally been moving in freshman all day today. Any time would have been a perfect time to bring up the fact that her little brother would be coming. Laura lets it go though because Carmilla is just smiling at her right now and she can’t seem to bring herself to argue when Carmilla’s smiling at her like that.

“Anyway. I’m going to check in with Jean and then catch dinner with Danny, Laf, and Perry. Do you want to come?”

“I actually told Kirsch I’d eat with him. He probably doesn’t want to spend any more time with Xena either.”

Laura frowns slightly and rocks on her heels. “That’s fair, I guess.”

“Next time though?”

Laura smiles bright back at Carmilla. “Yeah, definitely.”

“Well I’m gonna go check in on Will. It’s his first time away from home so I want to make sure he isn’t crying or something.”

“Ok. I’ll, um, see you around then?”

Carmilla hasn’t stopped smiling at Laura. “Definitely.”

“Ok. Bye, Carmilla.”

“Bye, cutie.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment if you like the story so far or not. Thank you for reading. I'm going to try and set a schedule for updates being M,W,F! (i uploaded this one a little earlier)
> 
> Follow me on tumblr: welcomefellowmisfits.tumblr.com
> 
> I'm so open to discussing this story with anyone :)


	3. Late Night Panther

Laura is outside in the quad with the rest of the Resident Assistants helping to set up for their first program of the year. She has been put on ice cream duty which she was more than happy to hear. She’s so focused on getting all the whip cream. sprinkles, and toppings out of the boxes and set up nicely onto the table in front of her that she never noticed the raven haired girl walk up to her. When she turns around to place another few bottles of whipped cream on the table, Carmilla’s presence scares her, which she jumps from and makes a shouting noise. Carmilla just laughs.

“You ok there, cupcake?”

Laura has her hand placed over her heart. She takes a few breaths and is able to calm herself down. “Yeah. But no thanks to you.” Carmilla laughs again and the other girl has lost track of the amount of times she thought to herself how beautiful that laugh is. As soon as those thoughts come however they are just as quickly shoved away.

“So tell me, buttercup. What the heck are we even doing even?”

Laura continues to set up for the event while Carmilla talks to her. Now unloading all the giant ice cream containers and lining them up on the table. She gives Carmilla a confused look. “What do you mean?”

“This.” She gestures to the table Laura is in the middle of setting up as well as the all of the quad where a bouncy house is in the middle of being blown up and yard games are being assembled.

“It’s a Late Night Panther.”

Carmilla’s expression doesn’t change. Laura sighs.

“Right, transfer student. I forgot. Well Res life puts on late night panthers every Thursday night for students who don’t want to go out and party but don’t want to be stuck in their rooms all night.”

Carmilla doesn’t look amused which just makes Laura internally roll her eyes. She’s been trying not to actually roll them also in fear of what the strain will eventually do to her. 

“C’mon tonight will be a lot of fun. We can even steal some ice cream later.”

Carmilla raises an eyebrow and smirks just the tiniest bit. “I never begged you for a thief, sweetheart.”

“Guess there’s a lot of stuff you don’t know about me then, Ms. Karnstein.”

It’s Laura’s turn to smirk at the other girl who just keeps staring right back at her.

“I guess so.”

They hold each other’s stare for a few moments just smiling. Carmilla looks like she is about to say something else but is interrupted by the sound of her name being called from across the quad. Carmilla looks back and then turns to face Laura again.

“Sorry, buttercup. Duty calls.”

Laura twist her mouth to stop the frown from showing that she felt growing on her face. She really enjoys getting to talk with and hang out with Carmilla and it always seems their conversations are cut short by something. Laura is too busy in her own head to notice that Carmilla has already began to walk away. Without really thinking she shouts a quick bye over to Carmilla who turns her body quickly to flash her a smile and a quick wave of her hand before continuing her walk towards the woman who called her over. Laura internally kicks herself at how not smooth that bye was. She sighs and then continues to unload all of the ice cream containers onto the table.

//

The late night event is in full swing. Laura scans the quad and notices there has to be at least 200 students right now who are either playing some yard game, eating ice cream, or just hanging around talking to their friends. Laura is on ice cream duty with Laf and a few other RAs from other buildings. They seem to have a good system down since they are staffed enough. Laura’s only job is to put whipped cream on top of the ice cream when Lafontaine hands it to her. But that job is proving to be more difficult than she planned because she keeps losing focus every time she looks over at Carmilla. She’s at a table across the quad from hers playing music off a laptop that then gets amplified by the speakers next to her. The only reason she keeps looking over at Carmilla is because she keeps looking over at her. Carmilla doesn’t even seem embarrassed when Laura catches her staring first either and just smirks at her before returning her attention to the music.

“Hello? L? You in there?” Lafontaine waves their hand in front of her face to grab her attention back from the girl she’s been staring at all night.

“What, yeah, what’s up?”

“This nice gentleman would like some whipped cream for his ice cream. Think you can do it.”

“Oh! Of course. My bad.” Laura hurriedly goes to pour some onto his ice cream. The boys walks away and the table is left with no one else to serve at the moment which Laura is grateful for because she went back to look Carmilla’s way again. She’s sitting down picking at her nails clearly disinterested by the song playing which doesn’t surprise Laura. Anything on the radio Carmilla probably hates.

“Yo earth to Laura?”

“Huh? Did you say something, Laf?”

Lafontaine just laughs and shakes their head. They look in the direction Laura was just staring and when they see Carmilla, they smirk back at Laura. They continue to just stay smirking and Laura gives them a confused look.

“What?”

“You totally have a thing for mistress of the snark.”

Laura furrows her brows and shakes her head at Lafontaine. “I do not.”

Lafontaine looks at her like they don’t believe that for a second.

“I don’t. I swear. We’re just friends. I mean I think we’re friends. We’re friendly right now. Whatever. The point is I don’t have a thing for Carmilla.”

Lafontaine just shrugs their shoulders. “Whatever you say Little L.”

A few moments pass and no one else seems to come up to their table. “Hey, I’m gonna go see Perry real quick. You know make sure she’s actually enjoying herself and not getting too worked up. Ok with handling two jobs for a little, Laura?”

“Oh yeah. No worries.”

“Remember its fudge and then whipped cream. Don’t get to distracted staring at your girlfriend.”

Laura rolls her eyes. “Shut up.”

Lafontaine laughs and quickly walks away before Laura has a chance to find something and chuck it their way. For a while her table has a steady line of students wanting ice cream and Laura has to try her hardest to remain focused enough to actually do her job. Eventually the line dies down and Laura looks around the quad, seeing most people already eating ice cream she figures they’re probably done for the night. She takes off her gloves and turns around to throw them away in the trash behind her. When she turns back around she sees Carmilla there. She jumps and shouts again. Carmilla just laughs.

“Jesus, Carmilla. You’re going to give me heart problems.”

“Sorry, buttercup. I didn’t realize you were this jumpy.”

“I’m usually not.”

Carmilla smirks. “What do I make you nervous or something?”

“You wish” and not for the first time tonight she rolls her eyes at Carmilla who just then laughs.

“So how did a newbie like you get such a good job like music duty?”

“Guess pro-staff just knew the art major had superior taste than the rest of you.”

“Art major? That’s pretty predictable.”

Carmilla arches her eyebrow. “Predictable, huh?”

“Yup.” Laura holds the other girls stare.

Carmilla puts her hands in her pockets and looks the other girl up and down. “I bet you’re just as predictable as I am, sweetheart.”

“How so?”

“I bet I could guess your major.”

Laura looks at the girl with her best game face on. “Oh yeah? Shoot.”

“Well what do I get if I’m right?” Carmilla’s giving that smirk she’s seen so much lately and Laura just wishes she could wipe it right off.

“Let’s say it’s a mystery prize. Guess first. Prize later.”

Carmilla stares at Laura for a while. Laura feels like Carmilla is trying to read her or something but she doesn’t look away and instead smiles back at her. “Ok. I bet you’re a journalism major.”

Laura smiles which then makes Carmilla smile even more. “I was right, wasn’t I?”

“I hate to break it to you but you are not right.”

Carmilla looks actually surprised. “There’s no way. You have to be one it’s basically written all over you.”

“You’re right that I do like journalism and I definitely want to be a journalist after college. But Silas doesn’t offer a journalism major. Technically I’m a communications major with a concentration in journalism.”

“That’s not fair. I was still kind of right.”

“You were still kind of wrong too. Which means I win.”

Laura is smiling bright and is trying her best to stop herself from doing her happy dance. Her smile is completely wiped from her face though when Carmilla decides to invade her personal space bubble by leaning over the table to get closer to Laura.

“Well what do you want as your prize, sweetheart?” Laura can practically feel the sexy coming from the other girl’s mouth and is now having trouble getting her brain to form actual words. Luckily for her someone is calling Carmilla’s name again which makes her back away from Laura. Laura uses this time to let out the breath she didn’t realize she was holding and compose herself a little better. Laura looks and see’s that Carmilla’s brother is the one who called her name.

“Hey Laura. Hey big sis.”

“What do you want, annoying little brother of mine?”

“So I actually came to you for some advice real quick. Do you see girl sitting over there?” He points to the direction to their right and they both see a shorter girl with long blonde hair sitting on a bench by herself.

“What about her?” Carmilla ask.

“So I may kind of think she’s really cute but I don’t know how to go and talk to her.”

“Oh god. There’s no way I’m going to help my little brother hit on some chick.”

“C’mon dude. Why are you being so lame?”

“Sorry not happening.”

Will looks defeated and Laura can’t help but feel a little bad for him. She understands from firsthand experience how scary it is to go up to the cute girl you’re crushing on. Before Will has a chance to leave Laura quickly scoops some vanilla ice cream into a bowl with some rainbow sprinkles. She hands it to Will who just looks back at her confused.

“Her name’s Amy and she’s one of my residents. I talked to her earlier and found out her loves vanilla ice cream. Go up to her and offer her some the ice cream. Believe me she’ll think it’s really sweet.”

Will smiles big at Laura and grabs two spoons from the table.

“Awesome! Thanks Laura! And thanks for nothing sis.” He sticks his tongue out at Carmilla who just does the same back at him.

“Love you too, little bro” she shouts as Will makes his way towards the girl.

Carmilla turns back to face Laura who is again just smiling at her.

“So I can’t lie. That was a pretty smooth idea, Hollis.”

Laura smirks and shrugs her shoulder. “Just call me the smoothest.” The minute the words come out of her mouth she wishes she could take them back. Carmilla laughs and so does Laura. Thankfully for Laura she notices all the RAs are beginning to throw things away and clean up.

“Well I better start to clean up all this mess” she says as she gestures to the amount of spilt ice cream and toppings covering the table.

“Yeah, I better go grab my laptop before one of the little monsters decides to snatch it.”

Carmilla is about to walk away but stops herself. “I owe you one, by the way.”

Laura looks confused by the other girls comment.

“The bet. You won. I lost. I owe you, cutie.” She throws a wink towards Laura and walks away leaving Laura frozen in place for a few more seconds.

“Heart problems. This girl is definitely going to give me heart problems” she thinks to herself before going back to cleaning up the table.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think of the story so far! :)
> 
> Updates: M, W, F
> 
> Tumblr: Welcomefellowmisfits.tumblr.com


	4. We're gonna have a house party

Laura is sprawled out in the middle of the common room on her floor with papers, markers, and other craft supplies scattered around her. She’s in the middle of trying to finish up her bulletin board so she doesn’t have to worry about doing it this weekend. Also because the sooner she gets hers done the more time she’ll have helping Kirsch do his most likely the night it’s due. It’s what happened last week and it’s what she expects will keep happening throughout the year. But Laura doesn’t mind too much. She actually enjoys creating bulletin boards and likes to think of them as her own little masterpieces for her residents. If hers are going to be great it’s her duty to help her fellow floor partner out on his. She also likes to think of Kirsch as the big little brother she never had growing. He’s like this adorable puppy dog that she can’t help feel obligated to help. As Laura is gluing the last piece onto the giant bulletin board paper she looks up and see’s Lafontaine walking her way.

Laura smiles and sits up straighter. “What do I owe for such a grand visit from you?”

Lafontaine laughs and goes to sit down crosses legged on the floor across from Laura. “I was on my way to go see Perry but thought I’d stop by and say hi.”

“That’s really nice.”

Lafontaine looks down taking in the sight in front of them which makes them shake their head.

“Seriously?” they say through a small chuckle.

Laura looks down at her basically finished bulletin board and then back at Lafontaine. “What? You don’t like?”

Lafontaine rolls their eyes. “No, it’s not that. I can’t believe it’s a Friday and you’re working on your bulletin board that isn’t due till Sunday night.”

“I don’t mind. I like getting things done early. And it’s not like I have great plans to do later anyway.”

“Come to the party with me and Perry.”

Laura looks at Lafontaine, trying to read if their asking her out of guilt or whatever. But Laura can see no such signs. This seems like a genuine invitation. One she hasn’t had since the first week of her freshman year.

“I don’t know. There’s some things I already thought of entertaining my night with.”

“Sorry, L. Catching up on shows you haven’t seen on Netflix yet doesn’t trump going out to a party with awesome friends.”

The word friends catches Laura’s attention and the face she makes apparently catches Lafontaine’s attention. “What? You don’t think we’re friends?”

Laura shakes her head quicker than she thought was humanly possible. “No! Of course I think we’re friends.” She hesitates for a little before deciding to just say what’s on her mind. “It’s just I thought we were friends. But I thought you guys would just see me as Perry’s old resident you occasionally hung out with last year.”

Lafontaine moves closer to her and playfully slaps Laura’s knee. “C’mon. We’re friends. And we’re going out tonight. End of story.”

Lafontaine’s comments make Laura grin and she can’t help but feel this sudden rush of happiness. “Cool. Yeah I’m totally in”

“Also I think your girlfriend will be there so that’s a plus.”

Laura’s eyes go wide and she quickly looks around the room to see who could have overhead what Lafontaine just said.

“I’m just saying this is the perfect opportunity to make your move, Hollis.”

“Ok. We’re done talking.” Laura moves to start cleaning up the mess she made on the floor.

“I mean, I’m a great wing-person, if you want I can help.”

Laura picks up and chucks a couple of markers at Lafontaine. “Bye, Laf.”

Lafontaine chuckles and gets up, walking their way over to the elevator.

“We’re leaving at 10. So you better be ready.” They shout over to Laura before disappearing around the corner.

Laura shakes her head but can’t help smiling. She tries to ignore the feelings going on inside her right now at the thought of possibly being able to see Carmilla tonight. As she’s hanging up her bulletin board and walking back to inspect her work she can’t help but notice that she hasn’t stop smiling.

//

When Lafontaine, Perry, and Laura show up to the house party it’s already in full swing. Some loud pop song is being played at ridiculously loud levels and there are so many people in the house it’s a little hard to move through. Laura thought the first college party she went to was crazy but it was definitely nothing compared to this one. She tries her hardest to stay as close to Lafontaine and Perry as she can so they don’t get separated. Lafontaine and Perry are holding hands. Laf leans over to Laura so she can actually hear what they’re saying. “C’mon. Follow us.”

Lafontaine leads the three of them through a hallway and out of the main room from where they just entered the house. The three of them finally make it to the kitchen and Laura can see some college kid she doesn’t really recognize do a keg stand while two of his friends hold him up. Laura turns her attention back to her friends just as Lafontaine is handing them a red solo cup. Laura brings it up to her nose and smells it which causes her to make a weird face.

“Just drink it.” Lafontaine tells her.

Laura thinks why not and chugs the whole thing down. Lafontaine and Perry look at her with wide eyes that causes Laura to grin.

“My family are big drinkers” she says with a shrug and goes to fill her cup back up again.

Lafontaine wraps their arm around Laura and pulls her into a tight side hug. “That’s what I’m talking about, little L!” They take a giant gulp from their drink. “C’mon. Let’s go party!”

//

It’s a few hours into the party and Laura is a few drinks in. She’s sitting on the couch with Perry. They lost Lafontaine a little while ago, them being such a social butterfly, especially when they’ve been drinking. Perry is talking to Laura about the incident report she had to fill out last night with Kirsch when they were on rounds. She’s trying her best to pay attention to the story but she can’t help but look over at Carmilla who is leaning against one of the walls across the room from her talking to a blonde girl. She recognizes the girl Carmilla’s talking too as Elsie from her anthropology class. Either way Laura doesn’t like the way she keeps touching Carmilla’s arm and leaning in close to whisper things into her ear. The music isn’t that loud she doesn't need to be that close. At some point in the few minutes Laura has been staring at Carmilla with no care the raven haired girl looks over and they make eye contact. Perry is still talking about last night to Laura and Elsie is saying something to Carmilla but all Laura can notice is the fact that Carmilla is staring back at her and giving her one of the cutest smiles she’s ever seen.

Laura thinks maybe she should go up to Carmilla and Elsie. You know to make friends or whatever. But before she has a chance to stand up Lafontaine comes running through people and jumps right on top of Perry and Laura on the couch. Laura laughs and moves her hand from under Lafontaine’s head that is now resting on her lap while their legs are on Perry’s lap.

“Guys, you missed it. I just saw Danny and Kirsch arm wrestling in the kitchen for like 10 minutes. Neither won though cause some drunk kid came barging in and spilt his drink all of Danny and some of the Zeta dude’s had to hold Kirsch back cause it looked like he was going to beat the crap out of the other dude.”

“I’m sure Danny would have been just as capable at handling that other guy.” Perry chimes in.

Laura thinks back to the couple of soccer games she’s seen Danny play in and yeah Danny is definitely capable of handling anyone that comes her way.

“C’mon, Perr. I have something I want to show you.”

Lafontaine sits up and pulls Perry by her arms off the couch. “We’ll be right back, Laura.” They say before wrapping their arms around their girlfriend’s waist.

Laura waves them off and takes the last drink from her cup. She doesn’t expect to see them anytime soon, thinking that they’re probably off to go make out some place. Laura thinks she should probably go fill her cup up again and look for Danny to hang out with. Next thing she knows though some small figure is plopping themselves next to her on the couch.

“Hey, cupcake.”

“Hey.” Laura can’t help the smile that’s found its way onto her face.

“Where’s Elsie?” she teasingly ask.

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“Yup. That’s what I said, cutie.”

“And you don’t care to find out where she went? You two seemed to being hitting it off just fine.”

Laura is only teasing Carmilla but the other girl can hear a small amount of jealousy coming from the shorter girl’s comments.

“The only person I care to be talking to is the one I’m staring at right now.”

Carmilla grins at her which causes Laura to blush and look away.

“Well what makes you think I want to be talking to you?”

Carmilla arches her eyebrow. “Well for one you haven't left yet.”

Laura nods her head acknowledging the truth in her comment.

“Also let’s just say I’m not the worst company to have at some college party.”

“You mean in a room full of dumb drunk college kids you’re as good as it gets? Shocker.”

Carmilla gives Laura a confused look trying to determine if that was supposed to be an insult or compliment. Laura notices and quickly goes to correct herself.

“Sorry. I meant that as a compliment. Of course you’re better than everyone else here. Cause you’re you. And they’re just them.”

Carmilla doesn’t say anything but just smirks back at the other girl. She looks down and notices the empty cup being held in Laura’s hands.

“C’mon. I have an idea.”

Carmilla chugs the last of the drink and throws her cup somewhere on the couch. She stands up and reaches her hand down for Laura to grab.

“Where are we going?”

“Just c’mon, cupcake.”

Laura reaches for Carmilla’s hand and lifts herself up from the couch. Instead of letting go though Carmilla moves to intertwine their fingers. Laura gets a sudden rush of butterflies in her stomach and does her best to keep herself collected. Despite the fact that holding Carmilla’s hand is making her really happy but really nervous right now. Carmilla leads them into the kitchen where a bunch of people are doing shots. She quickly looks around before snatching a bottle of tequila from the kitchen counter. She quickly moves so they both exit the room without being noticed as quickly as they can. Laura can’t help the laugh that comes out. This all feels very ridiculous and some part scandalous. Carmilla looks back to flash Laura a quick smile before pulling her up the stairs. Laura hasn’t let go of Carmilla’s hand and she doesn’t plan to anytime soon either. Carmilla hands the bottle of alcohol over to Laura for her to hold while Carmilla quickly opens a few doors but is only met with people currently using them to hook up in. After checking a couple rooms they find one that has no one it. Carmilla steps in and Laura follows. They shut the door behind them. The music can still be heard playing throughout the house but being in this room lets them have a certain amount of privacy and not have to shout over the music to be heard. Carmilla lets go of Laura’s hand to sit down on the floor with her back leaning against the side of the bed.

“You gonna join me, sweetheart?”

Laura sits down next to Carmilla and moves the bottle of alcohol so it’s standing in between her legs.

“Are you going to cradle it or are we going to drink it, cupcake?”

Laura rolls her eyes. She uncaps the bottle and brings it to her lips where she takes a pretty big gulp. Laura doesn’t miss how wide Carmilla’s eyes go in surprise but neither say anything. She passes the bottle to Carmilla who takes the same amount of a drink as Laura did.

“So how are you liking, Silas?” Laura asks in between taking another drink from the bottle and handing it back to Carmilla.

“I’ve seen worst universities.”

Laura rolls her eyes. “C’mon. I’m asking seriously.”

Carmilla lets out a sigh. “Well besides the obvious beauty of having free housing I’m actually quite enjoying myself.”

Carmilla’s comments makes Laura smile. She looks away to let her head rest against the side of the bed. “I love Silas. My parents went here. It’s how they met and fell in love and all that super cheesy stuff you see in movies.”

“So you’re a legacy then? Bet your parents were really excited when you decided to come here then.”

Laura looks down and her mouth twist, like she’s debating on whether or not to say something.

“My dad was. My mom died when I was just a baby. But I like to think she would have been.”

Carmilla doesn’t say anything and just stays staring at Laura. Laura takes another big gulp from the bottle and avoids looking at the other girl.

Carmilla moves so her hand is resting on top of Laura’s. “My dad died too.”

Laura looks up and Carmilla offers her a sad smile in which she returns.

“Here’s to the dead parents club.” Laura says before she goes to take another chug from the bottle. Carmilla stops her before she’s able to though.

“We should probably slow down. I don’t want you to pass out on me.”

Laura nods her head. “That’s fair.”

They sit in comfortable silence for a while before Laura is the one to speak again.

“So you never did tell me why you transferred to Silas?”

“Does one typically need a reason to change schools, cupcake?”

Laura looks at her disbelievingly. “”Yeah, they actually typically do.”

Carmilla laughs and shrugs her shoulder. “Touché.”

“So?”

Carmilla sighs and stretches her back out a little before going back to leaning against the side of the bed.

“I was a legacy too. At Sheridan. My mother went there and basically everyone else in my family. But I got tired of trying to be someone she wanted me to be, ya know? Sheridan didn’t offer anything I was interested in so I transferred.”

“And she didn’t care?”

“Oh, she cared. Big time. But she’ll get over it. She was probably more upset over me leaving Ell then leaving the university.”

Carmilla’s face goes white the minute she finishes her sentence and Laura can tell she didn’t mean to let that much information out. Laura’s curious and blames the amount of alcohol she’s had on why she ask Carmilla about who Ell is.

“Was she your girlfriend?”

Carmilla takes a few seconds before she answers Laura’s question. “Yeah. She was.”

“What happened?”

“I actually caught her cheating on me. Just the usual amount of betrayal. No big deal.” Carmilla laughs but Laura can tell it has no actual humor behind it. It’s not the usual laugh that makes her swoon.

“Well she sounds like an idiot.”

Carmilla turns her head so she’s facing Laura.

“Seriously. I’ve only known you for a short while but I can even tell you’re better than some cheating skank.”

Laura swearing causes Carmilla to laugh which makes Laura smile because it sounds like her usual one. They hold each other stares and Laura’s head is feeling all types of fuzzy. She can’t tell if it's from all the alcohol she’s had or from the way Carmilla is staring at her right now. Carmilla looks down just the slightest to stare at Laura’s lips before they go back to looking right at her. Laura reaches up to push Carmilla bangs out of her face. She wonders if Carmilla is going to lean in and kiss her. She also thinks if maybe she should be the one to lean in and kiss her. Neither is able to happen though because as quickly as the thoughts of kissing Carmilla come to her mind, Kirsch is barging through the door, which causes the two girls to separate and gain some distance between each other.

“Dudes, I’ve found them!”

Perry, Lafontaine, and Danny quickly pop their heads into the room.

“Hate to break up this love session but we gotta go. One of Kirsch’s friends told him campus police are on their way.” Lafontaine tell them.

“Yeah and I think we all want to actually keep our jobs so let’s go.” Danny says.

“How are we going to make sure they won’t stop us?” Laura says as she stands up.

“Perry can drive Kirsch’s car. She stopped drinking hours ago.” Lafontaine says.

“Well, what are you dimwits waiting for? Let’s go” Carmilla says as she leaves the room and makes her way down the halfway towards the stairs.

//

They all make it back to the Silas campus in a fit of giggles and without being noticed by campus police. Laura even notices Carmilla laugh a little at one of the ridiculous things said by Kirsch. They walk through Chandler Village and Danny’s building is the first one to come up so they all say good bye. Lafontaine building comes up next and they and Perry both say goodbye. Dowden is the back of campus and Carmilla’s building is the closest on to it. When they finally get outside her building Kirsch brings her in for a giant hug.

“Dude, tonight was great.”

Carmilla pats his back while he continues to squeeze her.

“Alright, I feel the love. Now let go, Wilson.”  
He pulls himself away from Carmilla and backs away. Laura isn’t sure what she should do. Should she hug her? Wave good bye? Just leave? Carmilla is looking back at her seemingly debating the same thing as Laura. Laura just throws caution to win and brings the other girl into a hug. Carmilla tenses for just the slightest amount of time before wrapping her arms around Laura. Before Laura has a chance to chicken out she kisses Carmilla’s cheek.

“Bye!” She says before walking up to Kirsch and towards their way to their building.

“Bye, cupcake.” Carmilla says quietly under her breath before turning around to enter apartment building.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bye far the longest chapter. Hope you enjoyed! As always I love to hear some comments from you guys :)
> 
> Updates: M, W, F
> 
> Tumblr: welcomefellowmisfits.tumblr.com


	5. The Project

“Good morning, everyone. For those of you who actually read the syllabus you’ll know that today I’m going to explain your first assignment for this class.”

Laura lifts her head from where it’s been laying on the table in front of her to pay better attention to the professor. She’s exhausted from last night having been on rounds and writing an incident report that took them till 3am to finish. She doesn’t understand why residents don’t get that they can’t have any pets living in the residence hall with them and when they informed the girl that she was being documented, she burst into tears which then they had to help console her, which only lead to more drama with surrounding the pet in the girls dorm room. Laura honestly doesn’t get how people in college and still act as if they are in high school. All of it is truly ridiculous. It’s amazing the amount of crazy stories she already has ready to tell her future grandchildren during her time as an RA.

“For this assignment you will pair up with someone from Professor Smith’s photography class. The two of you will have to find a set of people that share something in common, whether it be people who play the same sport, are in the same club, or from the same town. You will then interview them and try to learn each of their own story relating back to the shared variable. This assignment is so you can learn how people can share something in common and have that thing still affect their lives differently or play a different role in their life.”

Laura grins and she can feel a rush flowing through the body. This assignment actually sounds super interesting and she’s so grateful that it’s not some ridiculous ten page paper. She has enough of those due she doesn’t need another one.

“You’re free to choose anyone you want from Professor Smith’s class to work with. You are responsible for the writing on the set of people who you choose while the photography students will be responsible for the pictures they must take for the assignment. Any questions?”

No one speaks up in the class and Laura’s professor looks around the room one last time before speaking again. “Alright. Come up and grab a rubric and then head to room 110. Professor Smith will be there with her class explaining the project to them. Go in and pick a partner.”

The students in her class all collectively get up and move towards the front of the room where their professor is to grab the rubric. Laura puts her backpack on and after she grabs the piece of paper from her professor walks out the classroom and follows the rest of her class to room 110. When they arrive Professor Smith seems to have already finished explaining the project to her students and waves them in. Laura walks in and scans the room the best she can trying to see if she recognizes anyone. After a couple of tall guys from her class move aside her eyes fall to the familiar raven haired girl who’s sitting in the back of the room reading a book. Laura can’t help her excitement and rushes towards the girl in the back of the room.

“Hey, Carmilla.”

The girl looks up from the book she’s currently reading and when she sees that it’s Laura standing in front of her a smile spreads across her face.

“Hey, cupcake.”

Carmilla closes the book and puts it into her black bag. “Are you in the class mine got paired with?”

“Yeah! How great is that? I was hoping I would know someone from this class and then I saw you which made me really happy, because now we can partner up, I mean if you want, but like please don’t feel like you have to-”

Carmilla cuts her off as she begins to stand slings her bag over her shoulder. “Cupcake. Stop. I’d love to be your partner.”

Laura squeals and throws her arms around Carmilla engrossing her into a hug. Carmilla lets out a small laugh and pats the girls back with her right hand lightly. When Laura lets go and pulls away from Carmilla she can’t help but notice how big of a smile the smaller girl has plastered on face.

“This is going to be so awesome.”

Carmilla doesn't say anything but just stays smiling back at Laura. Laura keeps talking about the project and the types of people they should interview but the darker haired girl is having trouble focusing on the words coming out of Laura’s mouth. She’s saying a million words a minute and keeps moving her hands around as she talks which Carmilla finds to be quite adorable.

“Cupcake.” Carmilla moves her hand up to stop the other girl from talking. “That all sounds great, really, but do you think we can move this to the cafe? I could really go for some coffee”

“Oh yeah. No problem. C’mon.”

Laura turns around and begins to walk out of the room. Carmilla laughs softly under her breath and shakes her head. She can’t help but think to herself how interesting this assignment is going to be as she follows the brunette out and towards the school cafe.

//

When they arrived at the cafe Carmilla ordered a regular cup of coffee and Laura ordered the sweetest iced coffee they had on their menu along with a cookie. When the cashier asked if they were paying together or separately Carmilla gave the cashier her card and said together faster than Laura could argue it. When Laura gave her a weird look Carmilla just shrugged and said that Laura can just pay next time. After hearing about the possibility of a next time Laura couldn’t help the smile that quickly formed on her face. The two girls grabbed their orders when they were finished and grabbed a table in the far back corner of the place.

“So who do you think we should do our assignment on?”

Carmilla just shrugged and took a drink from her coffee. “Doesn’t really matter to me, cupcake?”

“I was thinking we could do it on other RAs. For one every RA has a different experience with reslife and people decide to become a RA for a whole bunch of different reasons. I think it could be really cool.”

Carmilla thinks it over really quickly. She honestly doesn’t care what they do and is just happy to be spending extra time with Laura. Not going to come up with another option herself Carmilla agrees to the plan.

“Sounds good, cupcake.”

“Great! I’m thinking we could interview Laf, Perry, Danny, and Kirsch? Seeing as how we know them better so it won’t be that weird asking them personal questions.”

“I’m good with doing the ginger squad and puppy boy.”

“Awesome! We could do Danny and Kirsch one day and then Perry and Laf another. Just to make it easier.”

Carmilla just nods her head along to all of Laura’s suggestion and drinks from her cup of coffee.

“Here give me your phone.”

Carmilla arches her eyebrow and gives Laura a questioning look.

“It’s so I can give you my number. Just give it.”

Carmilla pulls her phone out of her back pocket and hands it over to the other girl.

“Always this forceful when you give a girl your number, cupcake?”

Laura rolls her eyes. “Shut up.”

Carmilla laughs before going back to finishing her coffee and relaxing back against the chair.

Laura hits a few buttons and then her phone starts to ring. “Now I have yours too.”

She hands the phone back over to Carmilla who just slides it back into her pocket.

“So how about I just text Danny and you can text Kirsch asking when they could do it and we’ll start from there, ok?”

“Sounds good to me, buttercup.”

They sit in comfortable silence for a bit, each of them people watching the others in the cafe and a few times making a couple comments that would make the other laugh pretty hard. It seemed to have turned into a game between the two. Despite having already finished their coffees and Laura her cookie they stayed in the cafe longer than needed talking and trying to make the other laugh. After one especially hilarious comment about one Laura’s professors who came in for a pasty Laura was wiping at her eyes and trying to catch her breath.

“Ok ok. I think we should stop before I literally die” the shorter girl says as she tries to calm her laughter down.

Carmilla is smiling big back at Laura and trying to contain her own laughter she can feel bubbling to the surface because of how contagious Laura’s laugh is.

After they relaxed and their breaths steadied out they stayed smiling and looking at one another.

“So do you think maybe we should do ourselves for the project too?”

“I’m not quite entirely sure about that.”

“Why not? It could be fun learning about each other and we might even get extra points on the assignment.”

Carmilla looks away and shrugs.

“I’m just not too keen on sharing details about my life.”

“You did with me.”

Carmilla looks up and her eyes meet the big beautiful brown ones she’s been drowning in all day.

“That was different.”

“How was that different? And please don’t use alcohol as an excuse.” Laura lightly teases her.

Carmilla holds Laura’s stare for a few more seconds before responding.

“It’s different because it was with you. You’re different.”

In this moment Laura can feel a bunch of feelings rushing through her body. Her cheeks heat up and she’s more than likely already blushing. She has the urge to turn away from Carmilla’s glare. She never was good at hearing such nice things like that said to her. But the sincerity in Carmilla’s voice and the gentle stare she’s giving her with the faint hint of a smile makes Laura not turn away. Laura clears her throat before she begins to talk again.

“Well we don’t have to present it. We can just keep it between us, ok?”

Carmilla nods her head in agreement. “Okay.”

“So Carmilla Karnstein, why did you decide to become an RA?”

Carmilla laughs after hearing the use of her full name.

“Well after I decided to leave Sheridan my mother refused to pay for my schooling. I was already friends with Kirsch and he told me how he was applying to be an RA here at Silas and that I should transfer here and apply too. Even though I didn’t start here they made some exceptions and let me apply anyway. So the free housing and being persuaded by puppy boy are basically the reason I’m sitting here today.”

Laura was curious about Carmilla’s relationship with her mother. On the few times she’s mentioned her Laura never really got the feeling they were close. She was also curious on her ex who cheated on her back at Sheridan. Laura couldn’t wrap her mind around someone actually being dumb enough to cheat on Carmilla. She was ridiculously beautiful and really smart. And when she eventually opened up she had such a beautiful laugh and smile and her snarky comments are probably the funniest things Laura’s heard.

“So what about you, buttercup? Why did you choose the life of a Resident Assistant?”

“Well it’s just me and my dad. He’s a construction worker in the town we live in and doesn’t make that great of money. We’re not poor and I’m aware we live better than a lot of people in the country but university is still pretty expensive so the free housing was definitely a big reason to become one.”

Carmilla gives a short laugh and nods her head. “I’m pretty sure the money is everyone’s reason honestly.”

“Probably. But also being honest? I totally believe in the _we make a difference in their lives and college experience_ thing. I like the idea of being there for them and being someone they could come to advice for. Or just being someone they could always hang out with cause making friends is hard for some people. The whole being a role model thing. I love it.”

Carmilla is smiling wide at Laura. Laura ducks her head and laughs quietly.

“That must sound so dumb to you.”

“Cupcake, it doesn’t sound dumb. Trust me. Transferring schools and not knowing anyone expect Kirsch isn’t ideal.”

Laura picks her head and stares back at Carmilla.

“What I’m trying to say I guess is that I understand what it’s like to want a friend at a new place. You’ve been a pretty cool friend to me and I kinda need it too. So no, what you said doesn’t sound stupid. At least not to me.”

Laura bits her bottom lip to try and stop the biggest smile ever from spreading across her face. She blushes and shyly moves some of her hair behind her ear.

“I like being your friend too, Carmilla.”

Carmilla’s smiling back at her and Laura thinks she could never get tired of looking at her smiling like that.

“Well, I mean, I am pretty great. So you’re welcome.”

Laura rolls her eyes and laughs before throwing a crumpled up napkin that was on the table between them at Carmilla.

“You’re so full of yourself.”

Carmilla laughs. Laura checks the time and realizes she has another class in a few minutes.

“Well I gotta go. I have my anthropology class in a few minutes.”

“Ok. I’ll walk you to class.”

“You really don’t have to, Carmilla.”

“No it’s cool. I have class in the Ghosh building too. That’s where your class is, right?”

Laura looks surprised that Carmilla actually remembered what she told her.

“Um, yeah it is.”

“Alright then.”

Carmilla stands and slings her black bag over her shoulder and Laura throws her backpack on. She extends her arm out in front of her. “After you.”

Laura playfully shakes her head at Carmilla. “How polite.”

Carmilla just smirks back at the other girl.

//

 **Laura (6:03pm)** : _I talked to Danny. She said she’s free tomorrow after dinner to help us with the project. Is that cool with you?_

 **Carmilla (6:05pm)** : _sounds good to me. I’ll text kirsch now_

 **Laura (6:06pm)** : _okay :)_

 **Carmilla (6:20pm)** : _kirsch is cool with tomorrow after dinner. so 6?_

 **Laura (6:22pm)** : _yup! see you then :)_

 **Carmilla (6:23pm)** : _see ya then, cupcake_

//

“Why am I here stuck in this room with you again?!” Danny’s can’t help how annoyed she sounds but being in this room with Kirsch is not what she signed up for.

“Cause we’re here being bro’s and helping out Carm and little L for this cool project.”

Danny glares hard at Kirsch. “Thank you so much, Wilson. That clearly wasn’t a rhetorical question or anything.”

“Dude! It’s Kirsch.”

“Whatever, Wilson.”

“Fine, D-bear.”

“Stop calling me D-bear!”

“Not until you stop calling me Wilson!”

Danny and Kirsch both straighten up their backs and are glaring hard at one another. Laura decides to set in and defuse this situation before world war 3 happens.

“Okay! So how about we interview Danny first and Carmilla you can take a few pictures of her and then it’ll be your turn, Kirsch. Sound cool with everybody?”

Everyone in the room nods their head. Kirsch goes sit on the couch in the room and pulls out his phone to play some weird game Laura hasn’t really heard of. Danny moves to sit down at the table.

Carmilla moves closer to Laura and whispers in her ear. “So this is gonna be interesting.”

Laura nods her head and quietly says so only Carmilla can hear her. “You have no idea.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry it's been awhile since an update! I wanted to update m,w, & f but i recently just got 2 jobs and moved. So I'll probably be only updating on the weekends.
> 
> Anyway, i hoped you enjoyed this chapter. Leave a comment on what you think :)
> 
> My tumblr: welcomefellowmisfits.tumblr.com


	6. The Project pt.2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please excuse any and all typos that are most likely present in this chapter. 
> 
> p.s. this is for the anon that sent me a message about updating! :) Hope you like it!

“Lafontaine, your tie isn’t even straight! Hold on let me just-”

Carmilla lets out a frustrated sigh as she puts down her camera. They have been interviewing and taking pictures of Lafontaine and Perry for a few hours now and honestly she just feels completely done. They really should have been done by now but Perry insist that every picture isn’t perfect and she will not allow Carmilla and Laura’s project to be anything but perfect. Her heart is in the right place but really Carmilla just wants to be done with this thing already. 

Laura is standing behind Carmilla with her arms crossed in front of her chest. Carmilla can see in the way her lips are pressed hard together and she is also over this whole situation. They make eye contact with one another and Carmilla pretends to be falling asleep while Perry and Lafontaine are mini arguing over the adjustment of Lafontaines tie. Laura laughs at the silliness of Carmilla and mouths “i’m sorry to her.” Carmilla smiles and just shrugs her shoulders. 

“Ok, Carmilla. How about you take a few more now.”

Carmilla salutes the curly haired girl before picking up her camera and snapping a few more shots of Lafontaine. “Ok. We should be all good now.”

“Really? You sure you don't want us in different locations?”

Carmilla turns her head to Laura and pleads with her eyes that she can talk some sense into her friends. Laura immediately gets it and steps in.

“No we’re all good, Perry, really. You guys are great we really appreciate it.”

“It really is no trouble to us at all, Laura. Maybe a few more in the common rooms?”

Laura struggles to come up with a way to let Perry down easy but fortunately for her Carmilla speaks up again. 

“You know as great as that sounds my camera actually just ran out of storage so no can do.”

“Oh what a shame.” Perry says.

“Yeah, real shame.” Laura bites her lip to stop herself from laughing at Carmilla’s comment.

“Well we shall be going then. Please do call us if you need anything else.”

Carmilla and Laura nod their head and once the two others finally leave the room they slump down onto the couch. 

“My god I honestly thought that woman would keep us here all night.”  
Laura laughs and Carmilla turns her head to face her while smiling. 

“I’m sure if Perry could have it her way she would have.”

They sit in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Carmilla is the one to speak up.

“So do you have any other plans today?”

Laura thinks, which results in her twisting her mouth and looking up towards the ceiling. Carmilla can’t help but find the other girls thinking face to be quite adorable. 

“No, not really. Everyone else has rounds tonight so I don’t have much to do.”

“Well I mean if you want I heard there’s a beach not to far from here. We’re nearing the end of september so there’s not gonna be many nice days left. We could drive down and hang out there for awhile? Maybe we can see the stars better there than on this bright ass campus.”

Carmilla is looking down while she ask Laura and the brunette has never seen her look this shy before. Shy Carmilla is the cutest thing Laura has ever seen and she has to bite her lip to stop the biggest smile from forming on her face. 

“That sounds really nice, Carm. I’d love to.”

Carmilla looks up from where her attention was solely focused on her leg and smiles big at Laura which Laura can’t help but recuperate

“Great. How about we meet in the parking lot in 10 minutes?.That way we can grab whatever we need from our rooms. I’ll drive.”

“Ok, that sounds great.”

“Ok, cutie. I’ll see you in 10.”

//

It didn’t surprise Laura that Carmilla’s car ended up being so Carmilla. She hasn’t known the raven haired girl long but she has come to realize just how predictable she really is. So sitting in an all black 2 door Bentley with Carmilla driving feels very natural to her. Laura is trying hard not to think of how natural it actually feels and how right and happy she feels anytime she’s spending time with Carmilla. Those thoughts seem to only complicate her life and she doesn’t want to complicate whatever she and Carmilla have. 

When they first got into the car some band Laura has never heard of started blasting through the speakers which also didn’t surprise Laura and neither did the fact that Carmilla still owned and used CDs. Something she brought up to tease Carmilla about which she only responded that “real music was made before cell phones, my dear.” What did surprise Laura however, but probably shouldn’t have, was how easily she persuaded Carmilla into allowing her to play some music she actually enjoyed. With a new sense of power Laura quickly pulled the aux cord she had in her bag and plugged it into her phone and the car. 

Laura is halfway through belting out Wildest Dreams and serenading Carmilla who can’t stop smiling at the girl in her passenger seat. Carmilla has to consciously make an effort to keep her eyes on the road because all she wants to do is stare at the tiny ball of energy singing along to Taylor Swift because she’s sure she has never seen a cuter sight. Thankfully they finally make it the beach just as the song is nearing its end. There’s a small parking lot which only has a few cars parked in it. Carmilla quickly pulls into one of the spots and shuts off her car. She reaches into her backseat for a blanket she put there as well as her bag and grabs it. 

“C’mon, cupcake. The sun should be setting soon.”

They both get out of the car and make their way over to the beach. Once they reach the sand, Laura is quick to kick off her sandals and Carmilla moves to take off her boots and socks. They pick a spot not too far from the water and Carmilla lays the blanket down. The two girls quickly sit down. They don’t say much of anything to each other and sit comfortable just enjoying the others presence. Laura is looking straight ahead where the water is and the waves keep crashing one by one. Carmilla can’t keep her eyes off the brunette though. Laura holds such beauty and with the way the wind is blowing her hair back and how perfect her smile is she can’t help but go inside her back and reach for her camera. She takes it out and snaps a few quick photos of the smaller girl. The click of the camera seems to have brought Laura’s attention back down to earth because she laughs and moves to hide her face with her hands. 

“Carm, stop! No pictures!”

Carmilla laughs and continues to take more photos of the girl as she tries to hide from the camera.

“C’mon. Just a few please.”

Laura rolls her eyes but drops her hands from her face. 

“I’m pretty sure the view you want is that way” she says while pointing in the direction of the sunset and ocean.

Carmilla drops the camera to her lap and looks to the sunset and back at Laura.

“Believe me, Laura. You are far more beautiful than any sunset this world will ever see.”

Laura stares back Carmilla and can tell that this is not one of those teasing moments Carmilla does to try and get a reaction out of her. Carmilla actually means it and Laura doesn’t really know what to think of that. She blushes and tucks some of her hair behind her ear. 

“That’s really sweet of you, Carm.”

They smile shyly at each other not really sure where this is going. The sun sets quickly and Laura notices how quickly the sky is darkening. 

“Come. Lay down. You said you wanted to see the stars right?”

Carmilla puts her camera back inside her bag and moves to lay down on her back next to Laura. They lay there on the blanket, looking up at the stars, with only the sound of waves crashing against the shore to fill the silence. 

“So how long have you been doing art for?”

“Since as long as I can remember. When I was little I used to love drawing everything and anything.”

“I wish I could draw. I was born with absolutely zero artistic ability.”

Carmilla laughs which makes the smaller girl smile.

“It’s true. You’re looking at the only person on this planet who could probably mess up drawing a stick figure.”

“Well how about I give you some free art lesson sometime, sweetheart.”

“Well you do owe me one. So I guess I can start to collect now.”

Carmilla rolls her eyes but the smile on her face hasn’t left. 

“I still call bullshit. Losing on a technicality shouldn’t count.”

“Sorry, Carm. Losing’s losing. 

“Whatever. You were probably too busy interviewing all the kids school to really learn how to draw anyway.”

Laura turns on her side to face Carmilla who moves her head to look at her as well. Both more completely concerned with their conversation than looking at the stars above them. 

“Between running the school newspaper and marching band you are probably right.”

“Marching band? Not that is so predictable, cutie.”

Laura moves her hand to slap Carmilla lightly on stomach but the raven haired girl is quick to grab it and stop her. 

“I hate you” she says when Carmilla stops her from the assault. 

Carmilla doesn’t let go of her hand and instead moves to intertwine their fingers so they’re now holding hands. 

“No you don’t” she says with a grin on her face and Laura wants to fight her on it but her heart is pounding against her chest right now and Carmilla looks so beautiful laying on the beach with her under the stars that she decides maybe just this one time she’ll let Carmilla win. 

“Yeah, I guess I don't.”

The smile that spreads quickly across Carmilla’s face completely fills Laura with a ridiculous amount of happiness. Maybe if Carmilla keeps smiling at her like that she’ll always let her win.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! My apologies for being so bad at updating this fic and for how short this chapter is. But hopefully you enjoyed it especially with it being so much fluff!
> 
> Comments, kudos, anything are all highly appreciated! :)
> 
> Come talk to me about it anytime on my tumblr at welcomefellowmisfits.tumblr.com


End file.
